Journal des sciences de la Terre et du changement climatique

Abstrait

Roughness in the Earth Sciences

Ryan’s Henry*

Surface roughness may be thought of as a surface's tendency to not be smooth, and it is therefore connected to how humans (via their haptics) perceive the texture of a surface. It is a multsiscale feature that is connected to the spatial variability structure of surfaces from a mathematical standpoint. Depending on the disciplines that are taken into consideration, it has many definitions and interpretations. In nature, rough surfaces are common. Surface roughness is encountered and produced by near-surface processes. The resolution, scope, and accessibility of topographic information have all increased as a result of recent developments in surveying. In order to facilitate a more organized interchange of roughness formulations, this comprehensive overview summarizes efforts to express surface roughness in such datasets using examples from many Earth Science fields. The notion of roughness is surrounded by a variety of problems. Although these distinctions are occasionally made, the word "roughness" has been used to refer to a surface feature, a flow attribute, and a model tuning parameter. The number of techniques for measuring surface roughness has multiplied.